


Two Minutes of Freedom

by BigJellyMonster (orphan_account)



Series: AU Sorcerer Squall [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Depression, beach, sorcerer Squall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:14:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7383244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BigJellyMonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Squall only wants some time to himself. Too bad he can't hold his breath that long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Minutes of Freedom

_Thirty…_

_Thirty-one…_

_Thirty-two…_

_Thirty-three…_

He could hear his guards calling him. They wouldn’t even say his name anymore, now it was all “Sir, Sir.” How annoying. Squall never thought that he would ever miss the sound of his own name. All that time spending pushing people away, and he never thought he would regret it.

The water was rushing back and forth over his head. Waves crashing along the beach almost drowned out the sound of their voices. But not well enough. Squall swam deeper underneath the water. He could hold his breath up to two minutes so he figured he could experience at least two minutes of freedom before he had to resurface.

_Forty-six_

_Forty- seven_

_Forty-eight_

Who wanted to be babysat anyway? He was a SeeD for Hynes sake! Well he used to be; becoming a Sorcerer kind of ruined that for him. There was nothing he wanted more than to return to the way it was before. His childhood friends by his side, the freedom of their airship taking them to where ever they could imagine, spending time at their old home and the field of flowers that was there.

How long would he have to remain like this until he finally got comfortable? How long until he snapped and turned into the Sorcerers before him? If the only futures that awaited him was eternal imprisonment, complete isolation, or becoming a mass murderer, then Squall understood why everyone before him wanted to go mad.

_One minute_

_Sixty-one_

_Sixty-two_

His lungs were starting to hurt. Maybe he really couldn’t stay under the full two minutes, but he didn’t want to give up just yet. If the waves came to take him away, then it might just be a blessing in disguise.

Maybe he could hide somewhere up north. He always liked the snow. Growing up around beaches and tropical climates, made him become almost mystified once they landed in Traiba the first time. The child in him wanted to run around and build snowmen. Instead he quietly enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere of the soft snow falling from the sky and covering the earth as though it were trying to hide its scars.

_Seventy-eight_

_Seventy-nine_

_Eighty_

The water had strangely started to get colder and colder. Had he started casting magic again without trying to? It’s happened before. He had been in the training center and a T-Rexaur had snuck up on him. It took weeks for it to finally thaw out. Oddly enough, no one seemed very happy that he had taken a foe like that down without even trying.

_One hundred_

_One hundred one_

_One hundred two_

He heard his name this time, it seems like they were becoming frantic now. Haven’t these rookies learned how to hold their breaths like this yet? They should know better than to panic just yet. “Squall come back this instant,” A very familiar voice ordered.

Quistis? What was she doing out here? The one time he actually gets a few seconds away from everyone and she tries to ruin it? She can stand out there and wait like everyone else.

_One hundred ten_

_One hundred eleven_

_One hundred twelve_

“Squall Leonhart get up here right now!” She screeched at him from above the dark water.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Squall thought angrily. He didn’t care if he was acting like a child. He was going to have his few seconds of freedom and he was going to enjoy it whether they liked it or not.

Desperately, he wished he was in the endless snow of Traiba. The trees that seemed to touch the sky, the mountains that seemed to go even further than that. He didn’t want to be here with _them_. Freedom, and quiet, and the soft falling snow is what he craved.

_One hundred eighteen_

_One hundred nineteen_

_Two minutes_

Squall took coughed as his lungs suddenly sucked up cold air. Hands gripped the frozen ground beneath him as he tried to regain his balance.  After catching his breath, Squall lifted his head up and looked around.

He almost lost his breath again at what he saw.

It was exactly as he remembered it. The snow gently fell from the sky, trees covered in white, the ever present chill in the air….

Squall moved his toes in the snow the way a child would with sand on the beach. A light found a way to his eyes that had never been there before.

_Freedom._ He was free. He was free, and there was no one stopping him. Squall smiled like he never had before. His laughter, once forced, was now like music to the silent white world. There was no way he would ever give this up again.


End file.
